As teams gauge their ability to stay in the race and review their roster to see who is in the last year of their contract, baseball writers across the country begin their speculation on who might be traded and where they might go. Often unsubstantiated by anyone remotely associated with either team mentioned, members of the print and electronic media relish this time of year to play General Manager in their own version of journalistic fantasy baseball.
On Monday, future Hall of Famer Ken Griffey Jr. left one media circus for another when he finally joined the 600-home run club and became the fill-in-the-blank for "replacement for struggling outfielder" in baseball writer's Mad Libs. Even though Hal McCoy -- in his 36th year as Reds beat writer for the Dayton Daily News and member of the Hall of Fame -- says Junior Griffey will not be traded, it has not stopped anyone from throwing out the Griffey trade rumors.
The latest and greatest flurry of rumors surrounding Griffey have spawned from Jon Heyman of SI.com who wrote Friday Griffey told friends he is monitoring the progress of the Tampa Bay Rays and he would consider waving his no-trade clause. This was followed by an MLB.com report on Sunday that Griffey's agent denied any rumors involving Griffey to the Rays and that no one from the Reds has brought any trade proposals to Griffey.
Griffey is not the only player to fill up a "__________ to __________?" story in the past month. Enter Cleveland Indians ace C.C. Sabathia who is in the final year of his contract with the Indians. Cleveland is struggling to remain in the race in the AL Central and with each loss, the speculation surrounding Sabathia grows. Despite the Indians only trailing the front-running Chicago White Sox by 5 1/2 games, Sabathia is the first to be mentioned whenever a team looks to be in need of a pitcher.
New York Times reporter Tyler Kepner is trying to manufacture a Sabathia to the Yankees deal. On June 13, Kepner wrote an article titled "Yanks Would Have Interest In Sabathia." A read through the article makes one wonder why the title doesn't have the words "Tyler Kepner thinks..." at the beginning of its proclamation. Then, an injury to Yankees ace Chien-Ming Wang, played perfectly into Kepner's theme and the headline to his recap of their 13-0 stomping of the Astros read "Yanks Lose Their Ace And Eye Another." After reading the article, again, there is not one direct quote from anyone associated with the Yankees that states they have interest. Kepner does write that the Yankees were "interested in [Sabathia] before the Wang injury."
It's not a stretch to imagine either of these players being moved before the July 31 non-waiver trade deadline or Greg Maddux, Erik Bedard, Adam Dunn, Brian Roberts, Jon Rauch, A.J. Burnett, Bronson Arroyo, Damaso Marte or any other player on a non-contender that fits a contender's need. Although it is rare to find a trade rumor supported by a statement from a team official and typically the best you get is an anonymous source close to the team. Instead, it is typically a baseball writer's attempt at playing sports talk radio caller while using their reputation as a reporter as the collateral to gain the public's buy in. For Yankees fans heading to work today, the talk around the water cooler today will be "Did you see Wang get hurt on Sunday? I read in the Times they are going after that C.C. guy in Cleveland." When you hear it, realize it is what it is.